This year’s report finds that while
every state has shown some improvement since 2007, results vary widely. Even
the highest performing states have a long way to go to achieve academic gains
for all students. American students are far from being internationally
competitive. In addition, unfunded pension liabilities, poor return on
educational investments, and a limited pool of high-quality teachers are
impediments to educational success.

Key
Findings:

Every
state improved on its performance from our last report, but results vary widely
and gains across the board must be greater to set all students up for success.

To
measure progress, or lack thereof, in state-level performance since the first Leaders
& Laggards report, we combined the changes in 4th and 8th grade reading
and math proficiency rates from 2005 to 2013. The resulting calculation saw
gains for every state in the country. However, the bottom performers—South
Carolina, Michigan, and South Dakota—saw only 1.5, 1.0, and 0.25 total
percentage points in improvement, respectively—a negligible difference. The
three highest-gaining states—Hawaii, the District of Columbia, and Maryland—by
contrast saw 12.5, 11.75, and 10.25 points in gains, respectively. We are
getting better, but every state has a long way to go.

States
show wide variation in success rates on AP tests.

Earning
a 3, 4, or 5 on an AP test typically secures college credit in a given subject
and is a strong indicator that a high school student has mastered that course’s
content. College Board provided us AP passage rates state by state to determine
which states were both providing access to AP exams as well as helping students
actually succeed on them. In Maryland and Connecticut, 29% of students graduate
having passed an AP exam. In Virginia, 28% have. Therefore, many students in
those states have both the access and the preparation to succeed on high- level
coursework. Unfortunately, this is not the norm across the board, and even
those states have much room for improvement. On average, only 20.1% of
graduates passed an AP exam nationwide. In Louisiana, only 5% of students graduate having passed an AP exam; in Mississippi, only 4%.

American
students are a long way from being internationally competitive.

Our
measure of international competitiveness took three factors into consideration:
(1) NAEP scores compared with international benchmarks (2) passage rates on AP
STEM exams and (3) passage rates on AP
foreign language exams. Across all three of these indicators, states struggled.
California, the highest- performing state on AP foreign language scores, saw
only 9% of students graduate having passed an AP foreign language test. North
Dakota, the lowest-performing state, saw .04% (or 1 in 2,500 students). STEM
was not much better: The highest-performing state, Massachusetts, had only 16%
of its graduates pass an AP STEM exam, and the
lowest, Mississippi, had only 1.2% (about 1 in 80 students) do so. Combine that
with middling comparisons to international benchmarks, and we see a bleak
picture for American students and a nation that wants to compete globally.

States
have work to do to ensure that every student is college and career ready.

States
have made great advances since 2007 in the quality of their standards to ensure
that students are college and career ready by the time they graduate high
school. In particular, the widespread adoption of the Common Core State
Standards—a movement the U.S. Chamber of Commerce fully supports—in more than
40 states plus the District of Columbia signals one of the most serious
attempts, in recent memory, to ensure all students are provided a rigorous, high-quality
education to prepare them for success after high school.

Yet
despite these promising developments, most states still see large numbers of
their students failing to meet a meaningful definition of readiness for the next level of their educations. Even the highest-performing states on the 2013
NAEP—Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Minnesota—saw only around half of all
students deemed “proficient” on the combined 4th and 8th grade reading and math
metric. The lowest performers—Louisiana, Mississippi, and the District of
Columbia—saw only around a quarter.

While
states are at the beginning stages of Common Core implementation, the business community firmly believes that only by
staying the course in demanding high standards will our students be prepared
for what lies ahead. Turning our backs on high expectations will only do more
harm down the line—for students and our country. Without aligned and rigorous
assessments— and proficiency cut scores that accurately demonstrate comprehension—the
promise of college- and career-ready standards for students will not be
realized.

States
can identify good teachers; they just can’t get enough of them.

The
National Council on Teacher Quality’s ranking of teacher quality reveals a
sharp divide in where states succeed and where they struggle. States
consistently scored higher in the ability to identify teacher quality, retain
good teachers, and exit bad ones—a signal, perhaps, of the effectiveness of the
past decade’s policy emphasis on connecting student performance data to teacher
evaluations—but scored extremely low on
preparing teachers and expanding the pool of good teachers.

Unfunded
state pensions threaten public education.

Unfunded
pension liabilities pose an enormous threat to states’ ability to fund their public services, including education.
Unfortunately, states like Connecticut, Kentucky, and Illinois have contributed
less than half of what they should have to keep these funds solvent, and many
other states are failing to make necessary catch-up payments. Such states as
Wisconsin, North Carolina, and South Dakota, on the contrary, have funded at
necessary levels as well as kept up with required payments to maintain their
promises to retirees and have money for public education.